Sport - Squash   

Corren, Heather enter final

By S.R. Suryanarayan

India's Ritwik Bhattacharya (left) argues with the referee for giving the match point to Mike Corren of Australia in the Chennai Open squash on Saturday. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI DEC. 6. The seedings came true with the top two, Mike Corren of Australia and Mark Heather of England qualifying to contest the final of the PSA super satellite Chennai Open tournament at the TNSRA court on Sunday.

The semifinals on Saturday proved contests of contrasting nature. If Corren huffed and puffed before a referee's rejection of a `let' call made by Ritwik Bhattacharya on the final point provided him the lifeline then Heather was helped by an opponent in hurry. Indeed Saeed Hassan of Pakistan, who had to catch Sunday morning's flight back home, had no heart in the match. The way he targeted the tin it was easy picking for the Englishman.

The Indian national champion, Ritwik took time to settle as Corren was in good touch, finding the mark above the tin with ease. Besides the forehand down the line drives worked perfectly and the low returns came for easy placements. The Australian's form looked ominous. This, despite the Indian being a fast mover with admirable reflexes and packing a punch in his returns. The way Corren mixed the boasts and drops to unsettle the Indian, the match seemed destined for a quick finish.

But no sooner was he looking good than came the problems of temperament. A few calls, be it `let' or `stroke', brought up displeasure and before long arguments began. He lost the third game partly to this. In the fourth game, things reached a pass when Corren even walked out of the court once to have his view heard by the referee. But as luck would have it, Ritwik had to bear the final `displeasing' call that too when the score was level 14-14 and when everything for the Indian hinged on that last point.

Heather faced no such hiccups. As he jokingly put it after the match, "my opponent made things easy". For a player, who hardly let the ball go past him in the earlier match, Hassan was unbelievably erratic. The whole match lasted just 34 minutes.

The results: semifinal: Mike Corren (Aus) beat Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind) 15-9, 15-9, 11-15, 15-14; Mark Heather (Eng) beat Saeed Hassan (Pak) 15-10, 15-10, 15-9.

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